Denney Farm Brings Merrilee's Produce Back To Life
Posted
Jordan Fouts-
Taking up farming hasn’t been easy for Nicholas and Brittany Denney, but they’re in it for the long haul.
The Denney Farm is a revival of Merrilee’s Produce, which Brittany Denney’s grandparents ran until six years ago. Since taking over two years ago, the Silver Lake couple has added meat to the menu, including rabbits, pork and chickens, and have also bought the rights to a three-acre pumpkin patch this year.
“They prodded us to restart the business,” Brittany Denney said of her grandparents. “The combination of the local food movement and our own concerns with where our food came from helped us to decide to go for it.”
She said she and her husband love good food and gardening. She does a lot of canning for winter, while Nicholas loves working with the animals.
They originally planned to operate the farm part-time for extra money, but soon decided they had to jump in with both feet.
“On opening day in May our worker quit. We had too much time and money invested in this to let it go. So my husband quit his mechanic job to farm full time,” said Brittany, who does the office work at home while watching their two young children, with a third on the way. “After doing this full time this season we have quickly learned to respect anyone who owns a business and all the work that is involved.”
Their season starts in early spring, tilling and planting early crops and setting up the brooder house in February so they can have chickens for sale when they open in mid-May. They buy piglets, rabbits and Red Ranger chicks early in the year and raise them all on their own land.
“(The chickens) are flying around, crowing, and eating lots of bugs and grass up until the day we butcher them,” Brittany Denney said. “I know our pork and chicken have the classic flavor you can't get in the store.”
Produce has been challenging this year, she said, because of early hot weather followed by freezing. They had to replant all their green beans several times, and bought much of their produce from Amish growers around Nappanee.
They plan to expand the garden next year with a more diverse group of vegetables, with the goal of growing at least 80 percent of what they sell. They also hope to extend meat offerings to turkey and beef in the future.
Their business has grown, but not has quickly as they had hoped, Brittany Denney remarked.
“Things have changed a lot since my grandparents sold produce and people don't spend money the way they used to. They are very cautious on how much they spend on food,” she said. “We understand that getting people to trust you with their food is a slow process. We are dedicated to providing quality produce and meat to the Warsaw area. Our goal is to have meat and vegetables that tasted the way they did before the food industrialization of the 1940s.”
She added, “I know that once someone tries pastured meat the stuff at the grocery store will never compare. It's just getting people to try it once.”
Other plans for next year include adding more heirloom vegetables, with a focus on flavor rather than yield, as well as offering canning classes.
The farm, at 3331 W. 200S in Warsaw, will be open through Oct. 31. After that the Denneys will continue to offer deer, rabbit and chicken processing at their home.
“All in all I would have to say this has not been an easy year for us, but we have learned quite a lot,” Brittany Denney said. “We are in this for the long haul.”
